by Billi Jean
Chapter Fourteen
Kincaid stepped through Hunter’s gate to the control center in Alaska and watched Hunter do the same. He almost felt as if he was in that movie, Groundhog Day, where every day was the same, because this place was getting to him. All the white walls and damn white everything. It was the same in every room, on every floor.
Not that Hunter was the same. He swore each day with her he peeled off another layer. And just when he thought she couldn’t be more amazing, he’d peel off the next and she’d stop his heart all over again.
This morning she was much quieter than she had been yesterday when she’d woken up to him making breakfast in her kitchen. Or when she’d broken her mirror when she’d found out what her face looked like. No temper tantrums today, just a subdued, worried little Hunter.
She broke his heart.
She’d slept in his arms. That did things to him—things he wasn’t sure he’d recover from if she suddenly was gone again. Maybe it did things to her too.
“Can you bring up that footage of the changelings by the door, again?” he asked instead of bringing up the fact that she was way too quiet. His gut warned there was something there, something they’d missed.
“Sure.”
He pulled out a chair for her, and she sat, immediately opening her computer without glancing at him. Her hat was back on, her hair up and she was wearing black again. No makeup, no nail polish, just her scar and averted eyes. Yeah, he’d spooked her by not making a pass. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to make love to her, it was because he did. He wanted it to be special—and pain-free would be great, too.
“I want to see that smaller guy, the one they attacked,” he said. “Why do you think they killed that one?”
“For lunch?”
He snorted and kept his thoughts to himself for now.
She worked on her laptop, and within seconds a few monitors came to life.
“Can you bring up footage from now, too? Let’s see if that door is still shut.”
“Yep, there.” She nodded to the screen closest to him.
He pulled over a rolly chair and sat next to her.
“That’s now. The door is still shut. This one is from the day before.” She indicated the far right computer.
“Huh, there. Stop it there.” He pointed to the footage from their first day. “Back. Go back. Can you bring up that right bottom corner?”
She tapped out commands and the spot grew to fit the screen. “Oh, shit.”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “That’s a changeling, not one of those.”
“So,” she frowned and glanced at him, then back at the screen quickly, “you’re saying that the changelings are here, and those things are different and…what?”
“Eating them for lunch.”
“Kincaid,” she muttered.
He’d known she would, but still liked jerking her chain. “The thing that bothers me is, was it one changeling or are there more of them? And I still want to go back to where we found the lovely wolf couple. That still isn’t right with me.”
She studied the screen. “Wait. See here.” She pulled up another clip and zoomed in on a section. “Is that more changelings? Or more of the bigger things?”
He leaned forward and saw the smaller smudges of gray and white near a doorway just off too far to the side of the camera to make out. “I think we have to go back down and check this section over again.”
“Is there a flamethrower around?” she asked.
“Good one, but no. First we go over this floor, then that section.”
Hunter didn’t argue. She closed her computer and faced him. “When do we go check out where those beasts disappeared in the mountains?”
He tapped his fingers on his knee. It was a good question. This might be a waste of time. The trail up in the mountains had been cut short by the Lykae, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t go back to see if there was something there. But she was wounded and that kind of hiking, in the snow, was tough. It was one reason she’d slept so well both nights. She’d been dragging on the hike back to the snowmobile. And yesterday she’d walked well over ten miles.
He made a decision. “Today here, tomorrow out there.” They couldn’t cover the entire compound, but they could make a dent in it.
“I’ve got a gut feeling.” He stood when she did. “I usually listen to it. Something else is here.”
At his admission, she paused in putting her computer away, then glanced at him as if he’d surprised her with his honesty.
“Okay, then. We go down,” she agreed.
He didn’t like that option either, but wasn’t able to keep her up here where she’d be safer. She’d see right through that in a second.
* * * *
Last night I slept in Rick Kincaid’s arms. And he’d behaved.
Why? Why had he done that? Why had he been so considerate and…sweet? He hadn’t even teased her about sex or tried to have sex with her—simply held her, and she’d liked it. Liked it so much she wanted today to be over so they could do that again tonight.
But at the same time, she wasn’t sure if she could stomach it. Was certain, in fact, she couldn’t.
And she shouldn’t. Lucifer would know. Day three of her being awake and he was nowhere to be found. They were back in the locker room, both of them exhausted from another day of no new clues and no changelings.
Satan would show up though. Eventually he will drop in and make sure I suffer. Worse…when he does, he will try to use my feelings for Rick to force me to do something horrible.
Kincaid settled his rifle against the wall by the lockers. “All right, so that’s about a day. Should we sleep here or go back to Bangkok? And why do you have a place there?”
“It’s safe, and no one knows—or no one knew.”
“My lips are sealed.” He mimed the motions and tossed the imaginary key over his shoulder. “Now, hop up here so I can clean your wound.”
“Now?” she asked, worried about getting too close to him.
He set his gun down. “Yeah, now. It was still red and swollen this morning. That could mean infection, oh, mighty immortal.”
She grimaced at that. It did hurt still.
“I’ll wash my hands. We can’t do much more today. We’ve covered everywhere I set out to check and I’m exhausted, so I know you are.”
“I’m not so bad,” she edged, trying to think of how to stop him. He walked over to the sink and winced at the cold water that came out of the tap.
If they were going to stay here for much longer, they needed to get the hot water on.
“We need to get the hot water heater on in this place,” he said.
It was so close to what she was thinking, she blinked.
“We can wait and clean this in Bangkok—”
“You barely have a bed there,” he grumbled. “Not that I didn’t enjoy it last night,” he added, giving her a wink. “You don’t even snore.”
She had nothing to say to that, so she simply swallowed. Kincaid returned to her side, but instead of doing anything, he studied her.
“What has you so spooked today, Sparky”
The loud screech of an alarm sent a shock through her and had Kincaid pulling his gun. She raced to where he’d revealed a console half hidden behind the bulk of a cabinet. She tapped right in and there they were—Torment and another man she didn’t know.
“Immortals. Not changelings. It’s Torment.”
“And? Who else?” Kincaid moved to her side.
“Torment and someone I don’t know, but probably a Guardian.”
“That tells me what? Why are we running into so many people in fucking Alaska, Sparky?”
She liked that, how he called her that. She’d miss it, too when he was gone.
And him.
Her stomach tightened, pulling on her healing side.
Torment turned to the man with him and they walked out of her line of sight. The last time she’d seen Torment…
Was r
ight before I went to hell.
Chapter Fifteen
“So, no clue why so many people are stopping by?” Kincaid asked, shouldering his rifle after he holstered his Sauer.
Hunter shook her head and moved away from him. If he had to guess at her reactions, he’d say she was relieved they’d been interrupted—and worried. Confused maybe. He should have kissed her. All day he’d wanted to, but worried once he started there would be no stopping him.
“All right, well, let’s go meet them at the elevators. I’d like them gone, but we’ll see what they have to say, okay?”
“Sure, what choice do we have?”
Kincaid didn’t like her so quiet, but couldn’t do more now. He ushered her out of the room and down the hallway. They’d made the locker room their mini quarters, but they couldn’t sleep there. They could sleep on this floor though. He could rig the elevators so they wouldn’t work and lock the stair doorways. He just wasn’t sure he wanted Hunter to sleep here. He didn’t like the idea of her sleeping in a bed he wasn’t sure was…clean.
They reached the end of the hall in silence, but he could see her shoulders tense a moment before the elevator doors opened.
He pushed her to the side and raised his weapon. Torment, dressed in jeans and a black trench coat, stepped out right ahead of a red-headed man also dressed in black.
“Hunter,” Torment said, stopping a few feet away. His gaze landed on Kincaid. “You’re Rick Kincaid. We met at a council meeting. Trouble wanted me to tell you to turn your ringer on.”
Kincaid grunted at that, and next to him, he felt Hunter’s humor. He dug into his jeans pocket and pulled his cell out. Sure enough, his ringer was off. The phone was also on airplane mode. Shit. He corrected that and waited for a second. Ten messages and several missed calls, most from Grayson, one from another man he’d not seen in years and another from an unknown number.
“Yeah, so, what’s up with the visit?” he asked, barely scanning the messages, all saying to report in.
“Trouble got some information out of the humans—”
“What? We were told they were mages,” he said, checking with Hunter.
She shrugged.
“They were humans,” Torment said. “The changelings are north of here—or were, according to them. The last spotting of them was up there, so we’re here to help find them.”
“Why?” Hunter asked. She didn’t say it aggressively, but it landed that way.
The other man folded his arms and gave her a stern glare.
“Hey, watch what you say, man, because you piss me off and we’re going to have words,” Kincaid cautioned. “Hunter was assigned with me to find my men. I don’t see shit from Grayson about the two of you. So as far as I’m concerned, I lead this mission. Explain why we need your assistance?”
Both men simply watched him as if he’d suddenly sprouted the ability to speak. He didn’t mind. They were quiet, which meant they weren’t insulting Hunter. He slung his rifle over his shoulder, holstered his sidearm then scratched his jaw, waiting for them to dig their heads out of their asses.
Torment sighed and glanced at his partner.
“Hunter is not yet trusted, so we are here to see that she is not called in by her past.”
Hunter didn’t say a word, which was saying a lot.
Kincaid folded his arms over his chest. “And you two are what? Demons, right?”
Both men focused back on him.
As if that would intimidate him. “So, evil knows evil kind of things?”
“Torment is a Guardian. That means he can sense a tie with evil,” Hunter supplied when the tension rose a million degrees.
“I am Orin. I am also a Guardian. We will both accompany you, if you agree,” he added with a twist of a smile. Clearly he didn’t know who was in charge.
“Well, what do you think, Hunter? Two more is crowding the situation, isn’t it? If we needed help, Demetry was offering.”
Her eyes widened adorably.
“I’m just saying, if the changelings are up north, we can find them better with a wolf sniffing the area.”
She blinked, glanced over at Torment and Orin, then focused back on his face as if he’d gone nuts. “I’m not—”
“Yeah, he wasn’t to be trusted.” He ran the possibilities of getting Hunter alone again in his head, if the double tag team of demons joined them. He couldn’t see a way to cut them loose. “I guess you’re on, but we’re bunking down for the night. In the morning we’ll head out,” he suggested, motioning to the keypad by the elevator. No way was he taking these two to Bangkok or any of her other homes. “Find us a few rooms. They’ve got to have something in this place, I noticed a barracks down there, but is it clean?”
“Kincaid, we are here to mist you both to the changelings.”
He paused at that. “How’s that?”
“We have the coordinates,” Torment responded, clearly liking that he had that answer in his back pocket.
“Nice,” he muttered. He glanced at Hunter and assessed her. She was ready, but he also thought, tired. After the small break for lunch and her temper tantrum, they’d worked until he’d been blurry-eyed. She had to be tired. “In the morning then, we’ll head there.”
“Why not now?” Torment asked immediately.
“Because we’ve been up for over sixteen hours and we need to sleep for at least four before we go face whatever is waiting for us up north.”
“I need time, too. I’ve used too much magic already today,” Hunter said, right on top of him. “I’m tired. “
“Tired?” Orin repeated, frowning. “You shouldn’t be tired.”
“Well, sucks that I am,” she said, back to her old self again, thankfully. “I need some food, a shower and a nap.”
“Right,” Kincaid agreed. “Can you two go find the hot water heater? I’ll get us some food and Hunter can find some beds. Don’t take the elevator down past the second subterranean floor.”
“Can you make more grilled cheeses?” Hunter asked, but she was already working on the keypad. “Down this hall and to the right there are some rooms with bunks. They’re clean enough.”
“Great, and yes, I can make some more of those if you like. You want more soup, too, or maybe a steak?”
“A steak?” she asked, considering it. “Too much trouble.”
“Right,” he muttered, already planning out a nice, real meal to surprise her. She’d loved breakfast, even if she’d been quiet over it. He hoped she’d like his homemade one from the morning before, but she’d been quiet both times, like not sure what to do or say more than a whispered thank you. Tonight he’d whip up something better. “Okay, well, boys, you know where to find us.”
Torment didn’t take his eyes off Hunter. He wasn’t aggressive, but he didn’t appear too happy with the outcome of their drop-in.
Kincaid didn’t care. More answers, and possibly his men, were up north. He was going to make sure they got back to their lives—as soon as he found them.
“Come on, Sparky. Let’s go,” he urged, pushing her gently into motion. She obeyed and together they walked away. “Hell of a disappointment, those two showing up, huh?”
She smiled and elbowed him. “Those two,” she whispered, “are scary powerful. Best you remember that, Kincaid.”
“Rick. Really, after sleeping in my arms twice, it’s Rick.”
“I knew you’d snuck in my bed with me! And are you ever serious?”
“I am serious,” he assured her, and urged her up against the wall as soon as they were around the corner—soft, warm woman pressed just right to all the places he wanted. Careful of her, he urged her hips a little closer. “You are so screwed as soon as you heal, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun beforehand,” he suggested, practically growling in appreciation at how perfect her ass fit his hands. “If you want, whenever you want. I’ve been real patient, waiting on you to heal, but give me the green light and your toes are curling.”
She’d ga
sped in surprise when he’d first backed her into the wall, but at his words, she stroked his back, and bold as brass, cupped his butt Her sultry smile had Little Rickie standing right up to attention, even more so than the grip on his ass.
“You have a nice ass, Kincaid.”
“Rick, woman. It’s Rick,” he said, but hell if that wasn’t flattering. He flexed it for her and she bit her lip.
“Oh, that’s pretty hot, Rick,” she whispered in a sexy bedroom voice.
“Why the sudden change of heart? Not that I’m complaining,” he said, and bent closer to taste her neck where he could see her pulse racing. “But ten minutes ago you were shying away from me even bandaging you again.”
“Oh, you, me, here. Why not have some fun?” She pulled him closer with that grip on his butt.
He groaned and lifted his head from her sweet neck before they got out of hand. “So, you’re going to use and abuse me then let me go?”
She laughed and slid her hands around front, skimming them upward, to his disappointment. “Well, I wasn’t going to abuse you, I hope.”
They both heard the sound of footsteps coming closer. By the frown of concern on Hunter’s face, he knew she didn’t want them being found out. He kissed her quick-like, then took the necessary step away and tugged her hand to get her moving again.
“Cool,” he muttered, “but I gotta warn you, once Rickie gets in, he’s not gonna want to leave.”
She laughed, a clear, sweet sound, but cut it off way too soon.
“Get out of here,” she whispered. “And stop calling your body parts names.”
“What?” he demanded when they stopped at a door. “Little Rickie—”
“Kincaid,” Torment called behind him.
Hunter’s pretty face tensed but she straightened her shoulders and lifted her head as they faced Torment again.
“I need to speak to you,” Torment added.
Obviously alone, by the way he said that. Hunter did something and the doorway behind them opened.
“Cool. I’ll be in here.” She matched words to action, and within a second, she was gone.
He crossed his arms, uneasy immediately. This was the first time in a week he’d not had her right there.